The mission of the Kazan 2013 Summer Universiade is to gather young athletes from all over the world.

Kazan, Russia, July 8, 2013 – The 2013 Summer
Universiade began in the city of Kazan on Saturday, July 6 and will come to a
close on July 17.

The men’s volleyball competition was launched on
Saturday at the St. Petersburg Volleyball Centre, marking the start of the men’s
preliminary group rounds. The opening match took place between Belarus and Hong
Kong with Belarus winning 3-0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-10). The preliminary round of the
women’s competition started today with the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea beating Slovakia 3-0 (25-14, 25-15, 25-17) at the Zilant Sports Centre. The
finals for the men’s and women’s competition will take place on day 9 and 10 of
the competition.

The women’s preliminary round of the beach volleyball competition
kicked off today with a match between France’s Adelin/Longuet and Bulgaria’s
Burak/Seryk. The match ended with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-18) win for the France team.
The men’s preliminary round is scheduled to begin tomorrow.

Volleyball has been a compulsory and successful sport
at the Summer Universiades (organised under the patronage of FISU) from the
very first edition in 1959, with the sport featuring in 23 out of the 25
editions of the games.

The men’s national team of the USSR and, later, Russia
have taken the top prize 21 times while the women’s team have won seven titles.
At the 2009 Summer Universiade in Belgrade the men’s national team won the main
trophy for the first time since 1973, a significant success in the history of
Russian volleyball.

The 27th Summer Universiade will take place in Kazan,
Russia from July 6 to 17 this year

The schedule and the results of the volleyball and
beach volleyball matches can be found here.

About the Summer Universiade

The Summer Universiade is an international
multi-sport event that takes place every two years and is second only to the
Olympic Games in the number of participating athletes and countries. The
Universiade is open to competitors who are at least 17 and less than 28 years
of age as of January 1 in the year of the Games. Participants must be full-time
students at a post-secondary institution (university, college, CEGEP) or have
graduated from a post-secondary institution in the year preceding the event.